The Lambertville record., 1887-07-06
cEYIoN AS TT "a.

]. NOAH.

nxtensive Ruins OF Ancient Ctties-AbO-
rigines Living in Rock Caves.
At the last meeting of the Geographical
Society of Berlin, DIR. +. Sarasin, of Basle,
gave a sketch of the Island of Ceylon.
During his stay of two and half
years in the island, he made nine ex-
cursions on foot in different directions
from the centre fthe island. The greater
part of the island is plain, elevated but
little above the sea-level; only in the south,
ern part vast mountain group, composed
of gneiss and granite, and crowned with
rugged peaks. rises up like a gigantic wall,
and divides the island, as far as its climate is
concerned, into two parts--the west and
southwest humid, the north and east dry.
The western half participates in both the
monsoon rains, while the northeastern
part, during the southwest monsoon, which
mandates the southwestern region and the
mountains with rain, experiences almost
continually clear sky and great drouth.
In consequence of these conditions
the whole of the southwestern half
of the island is thickly populated
and cultivated, abounding with cocoa
palms and rice-fields, which extend
slopes. The higher parts of the mountains
were, until within comparatively recent
times, clothed with the most luxuriant tropi-
cal forests; but since 1t was found thirty
years ago that coffee thrives here in a re-
markable manner, the pfimeval forests have
everywhere disappeared, and the animals
living in them have been dislodged, SO that
at the present time it is only in steep ravines,
and on the heights between 5000 and 1000
feet, where the cold storms prevent the cul-
tivation of coffee, and the government has
protected portion of the forests from de-
struction, that small part of the virgin
wood remains. These gloomy gray-green
woods are very different from those of the
low plains The trees are covered with long
white lichens and gold-brown moss. Mag
nificent rhododendrons and tree-ferns, 20 to
80 feet high, form the chief adornnent of
these high mountain forests. For the
rest, the whole mountain range was
covered with coffee plantations until
the year 1870, when they were unfor-
tunately infected with fungus. This is
the reason that to-day nearly all the coffee
plantations have vanished and in their place
plantations of tea and cocoa have sprung
up. These, however, are not so profitable,
and, moreover, have already begun to be Wis
tied by disease Thus Ceylon will not in the
near future be so prosperous as in earlier
days. The broad plains of the dry portion
of the island are covered with endless leafy
woods, the trees of which, as regards their
exterior, are very similar to those of q
European wood, with the exception of the
leaves, which are hard and wanting in sue
culent verdure. On the banks of the rivers
are found gigantic trees from twenty-five to
sixty feet in circumference, entwined with
climbing plants. The greater the distance
from the rivers the sparser the vegetation,
and in the very dry district of the north,
where no rain falls for seven months, one
finds only low brushwood and prickly eu-
phorbias, in form like chandeliers. The for
est districts are now almost uninhabited, es-
pecially in the southeast, whereas formerly
they were in parts thickly peopled. Ia the
northern districts the traveller meets with ex-
tensive ruins; large towns with temples
and palaces are to-day overgrown with for
ests. The answer to the question, how wasit
possible for these dry regions to have been SO
densely populated, is to be found In the re-
mains Of the gigantic water reservoirs, which
the Cingalese kings constructed for the culti-
voirs date back from the first centuries of
our era. When the Cingalese people re-
treated southwark before the invasions of the
South Indian races, these immense works
fell into decay and became the home of the
crocodile. The attempts of the English
government to encourage rice culture by
utilizing the old reservoirs, and to make
Seylon, as regards its supply of rice, indie
pendent OF India, have up to the present
time been attended with butlittle success. In
stead of human beings the animal world has
taken possession of these vast solitudes. The
elephant, the wild buffalo, the wild boar, the
bear and the great troops Of monkeys people
in immense numbers this region. Although
in the larger towns, such as Handy, Co
lombo, &c., the population is very mixed,
in the country districts 1t Is strongly
divided. North and east of the great
forest-belt the Tamils live, west and south
of the same the Cingalese, while in the
woods themselves dwell the aboriginal
inhabitants, the Veddas. The pure Veddas
now scarcely number 1000, and disease is
rapidly thinning their ranks, so that in fifty
TO hundred years not ia single pure example
of this ancient race will in all probability
exist. They have recently been settled by
the government in small colonies, until quite
recently, however, they lived in hollows Of
the rocks; the chase was their only occupa-
ton and leaves their only clothing. They
had not even learnt to use stone for pointing
their arrows. They hunted chiefly monkeys
and devoted themselves TO fishing. They
are very low in the scale of civilization and
have hardly any wants. Their appearance
compares in remarkable manner with that
of the Australian negroes.